Schapelle Corby’s parole bid is delayed by Indonesian's missing mail

Michael Bachelard

Schapelle Corby’s parole bid is going nowhere fast as two Indonesian bureaucracies wait for each other to write letters, and the Australian embassy in Jakarta awaits further instructions.

Corby’s much anticipated release was expected to have been endorsed by now by the Corrections office in Jakarta and the minister for law and human rights, but as a two-week deadline passed during the week, it became clear that the paperwork has not moved at all.

It's in the mail ... Schappelle Corby's parole has been stalled by a missing letter sent from Indonesia’s Director-General of Corrections to the immigration department about her status. Photo: Getty Images

In fact, in the interim, the Corrections office appears to have come up with yet another requirement to be fulfilled before Corby’s parole can be granted.

Ayub Suratman, a spokesman for Indonesia’s Director-General of Corrections, told Fairfax Media on Friday that his office had written two weeks ago to ask the country’s immigration department to clarify the Australian drug smuggler’s immigration status.

However, an immigration department spokesman said his office had still not received that letter.

The corrections department cannot take Corby’s application to the next stage — seeking approval from the department head — until it has a return letter from the immigration department.

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Mr Ayub said the corrections department was also still waiting for a letter from the Australian embassy to guarantee Corby’s behaviour while on parole.

That letter was actually provided in February, 2013, but the corrections department rejected it two weeks ago because it was not printed on Australian embassy letterhead. They asked for it to be re-drafted.

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A spokesman for the Australian department of foreign affairs confirmed this week that the embassy had not yet written that letter because, “the Department is awaiting advice from Indonesian authorities on the requirements for the guarantee letter”.

It was “working to ensure there are no further delays in the process,” the departmental spokesman said.

Meanwhile, the corrections department has imposed yet another condition — a third letter, this time from Justice and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsuddin providing “guidance” on the case.

This is because Corby’s is considered an extraordinary case, as it involves drugs and a foreigner.

the Department is awaiting advice from Indonesian authorities on the requirements for the guarantee letter

“The process is clear but we still need guidance from him,” Mr Ayub said.

His office had written to Mr Amir, but, “so far no response from him”.

If the parole application ever clears the Jakarta corrections department’s processes, it must be signed by the departmental head, then by the minister, Mr Amir, and then remitted in writing to Kerobokan prison in Bali for Corby to be released.

At the rate letters travel between Indonesian bureaucrats, that event may now be delayed until 2014.